Impending Doom (SYOC Closed)
by Dustbin Doorknob
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione assumes that Professor Snape is allying with Greek monsters, and Harry knows that wizard spells only weaken the monsters. Harry then asks a few demigods for help. Can a bunch of random demigods prevent Hogwarts from falling to the doom? Or will everything be lost?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! Welcome to this SYOC story! If you like this chapter, visit my bio to get the form. This chapter may be short, but subsequent chapters will certainly be longer.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Harry

What should he do now, after finding out that Professor Severus Snape was allying with some monsters? And to be precise, Greek monsters. He didn't actually know how he found this out. It was already one long week, and Hermione had done some research in the library. And even worse, he had just realised that wizard spells only weakened the monster – it couldn't kill them. He was going to need some help.

Harry would need to inform Ron and Hermione first, then the tree of them would then discuss on what to do.

It was just a day ago when he came to the house, and realized that Mad-Eye Moody was dead. The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Harry felt that nothing but action would assuage his feelings of guilt and grief and that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.

"Well, you can't do anything about the" ¨C Ron mouthed the word Horcruxes ¨C "till you're seventeen. You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"

"No," Harry admitted.

"I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. "She said she was saving it for when you got here."

They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath.

"The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can ¨C "

"Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."

Harry understood "they" to mean Fleur and Mrs. Weasley.

"It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous.

"Don't they realize how important ¨C?"

"'Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry.

"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined."

Ron's prediction came true within hours. Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack. Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.

"Ron and Hermione seem to think that the three of you are dropping out of Hogwarts," she began in a light, casual tone.

"Oh," said Harry. "Well, yeah. We are."

~~FREE BREAK~~

~~ TIME SKIP~~

Harry rushed up to Hermione's room once Mrs Weasley had woken her up.

"Hermione, I need to tell you-"

"I know, I've done research. The Greek monsters can only be kill with this metal called Celestial Bronze. Spells only weaken them, and we don't know and person in this world that has the suitable weapons for this. We all know that-"

"You forgot. Remember that girl I talked to three months ago?"

"You talk to _girls_?" Hermione said with disbelief written all over her face.

"You're a girl too, aren't you? Anyway, she's Greek. She probably knows more about them than us."

"Yeah, let's go ask her."

"Where did I keep the drachmas?" Harry asked stupidly.

He fiddled in his pocket and took out a single drachma. "Gonna ask her for more of this things."

They went to the washroom, and threw the drachma into the mist and it shimmered…

**Ahhh! Eeek, cliffhanger! I can't continue, as I need the OCs so do visit my bio! Thanks everybody, waiting for your awesome OCs to enter :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks everyone who submitted an OC! Some OCs' chapters may be longer this time, but I'll make sure that everyone gets the same average amount of chapters/parts. OCs chosen are:**

**~Wynette Jessephine, 15, Hermes  
~Edmund Adrian Seine, 16, Athena  
~Charlotte Lace, 15, Khione  
~Raven Umbra Shadowheart, 18, Hades**

**That's all, folks! Note that OCs may be a little OOC because this is the first chapter. Be patient, I'll get that right soon! Without further ado, the story will start, like always, or else I'll get banned!**

**Oh wait, let me congratulate all OCs for being chosen, as they were the best.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Harry

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Wynette Jessephine, Camp Half Blood," Harry said and threw the single drachma into the mist. It shimmered, and the face of Wynette appeared on the watery screen.

She looked a bit confused at first, but then saw Harry and smiled.

"Hi Harry," She said.

OC - Wynette Jessephine, 15, Daughter of Hermes

Wynette wondered why Harry would suddenly Iris-Message her, but she decided to ask that later, as Harry's expression looked a bit urgent. But, as usual, she was still grinning from side to side.

"Hi Wyn, uh, Hermione and I have this problem, so we were thinking you could help us, uh," Harry glanced back at Hermione.

"We were thinking if you knew a lot more about Greek monsters, as we suspect that one of the professors in Hogwarts-"Hermione was stopped when Wynette sniggered.

"That one of the professors are allying with some Greek monsters, and we need your help to defeat You-Know-Who and that professor, Severus Snape." Hermione finished.

"And the monsters," Wynette said.

"Yeah so…could you, and some of your friends, come to Hogwarts?" Harry said cautiously.

"Sure, we'll be there by three," Wynette said, swiped her hand across the watery screen and took off in the direction of the Khione cabin.

Wynette turned the doorknob and swung it open. A blast of cold, snowy air made her sneeze. "Whoops, sorry!" She said to no one in particular.

The girl she had been looking for stepped to the door holding her sword, as if she expected to see a monster. "Wyn? What ya doing here for?"

"Harry said that he needed some help because he thinks that someone in his school," Wynette sniggered, "is allying with monsters. I'll tell you on the way, I needed to go get Raven."

Charlotte Lace, the daughter of Khione quickly sheathed her sword and followed Wynette to the darkest cabin.

They were walking halfway through the grass field when Edmund, son of Athena ran to catch up with them, suspecting that something was wrong.

"Going somewhere?" He said.

"Hmm, yeah, was thinking of asking you but…anyway, tell you, Char and Raven 'bout it at the same time," Wynette said.

~~TIME SKIP~~

Raven opened the door of the cabin to the sound of knocking on it. The saw a weird group of people, almost thought that it was another of Wynette's prank ideas but then dismissed the thought.

"What," Raven said, looking at each one of them carefully, one by one.

Wynette mimicked Raven's scrutinizing look, then said, "This takes long, but I have to tell you four people and I don't have time, so I'll just give you peeps a brief description."

"Dude you gotta wipe that smile off your face, or we won't believe you," Edmund said.

"Everyone keeps saying that, so that's why I don't! That's actually wrong, by the way. Let's not sidetrack, I'll be starting it soon." Wynette said.

"Start it now," Raven said and gave her a creepy death-glare.

"Fine, fine, since you want to. So a while before Harry IMed me and told me that one of the professors there is allying with Greek monsters, needs our help, want's us to come over, I said by three, and now's already two, need Raven's help. That's the summary guys! So, are you in the quest, or not?" Wynette said. "I'm in, if you were thinking of asking."

"I'm in," Charlotte said.

"Yeah," Raven said.

"Should I go or not?" Edmund looked like he was thinking pros and cons, benefits, losses…

"Choose a _wise_ choice," Wynette said.

"Fine, I'll go!" Edmund said, a little too loudly.

"Well, I'm going to IM Harry now," Wynette said. "And, Raven, you're supposed to come."

~~FREE BREAK~~

~~TIME SKIP~~

After IMing Harry, Raven had a rough idea of how the house looked like from the outside. Wynette and the others were in their cabins, packing some important stuff and then they would be on their way to Mrs Weasley's house.

The first person done was Wynette, as she had stuffed everything she was bringing, including the extra drachmas Harry asked for. Deciding that Edmund would be next, she walked over to the grey-painted cabin to wait for him.

OC – Edmund Adrian Seine, 16, son of Athena

Edmund didn't think that Harry was in fact a nice person. Or maybe not. The way Wynette had said it was hard to actually believe that she was keen on going over to the wizarding world, especially that only Harry, Ron and Hermione knew them. Someone would of course try to stop them, be bad, like normal people do.

He trusted neither Harry nor Wynette. Charlotte maybe, but otherwise not. Maybe it wasn't such a wise choice. After all, could he say 'no' when Wynette was already starting to taunt him?

Maybe…it could be anything, really. He'll think about that later. Wynette would be waiting for him.

When he opened the door, he was right. Wynette was already standing there, bag slung over her shoulder and leaning on the doorframe, and her eyes giving the why-don't-you-think-this-is-a-prank look. Typical Wynette.

They found Raven waiting at the Khione cabin, so they walked slowly through the grass, without talking to each other. Wynette checked her watch.

"It's already two fifty-five, we'd better go," she said, just when Charlotte came out of the cabin.

"Everybody ready?" Raven asked. He held out his hand and everybody took it. Including a half-hearted Edmund. The shadows blended around them, and they were gone.

~~TIME SKIP~~

OC – Charlotte Lace, 15, daughter of Khione

When the feeling of speeding through darkness faded, she felt herself thrown against some mud.

The first thing she heard was Wynette saying, "This sucks, thank you." And Raven saying, "Was what he showed me, all your fault. You actually deserve this."

Charlotte picked herself off the muddy ground and looked around. _Nice house_, she thought, _but it's surrounded by mud_.

Then she noticed the even more muddy water on her left, and then she regretted thinking that falling in mud was bad.

She ran after Wynette, who was already at the house, and followed her in. She heard thumping sounds on the stairs and realized that it was Harry running down to greet them.

"Hi Harry," Charlotte said.

"Hi-" Harry was cut off by Wynette saying, "Catch the drachmas if you want them!" And threw them at him.

Harry whipped out his wand and said, "Accio drachmas!" And caught all the drachmas in his free hand.

"Hmm…nice." Wynette commented. Charlotte resisted the urge to backstab Wynette after what she had just done, except that she already disappeared back outside.

Harry

"Come, I'll show you where you can stay for five days then," Harry said, leading them up the stairs. "We need to discuss something since you're already here."

~~TIME SKIP~~

After eating dinner, Raven said that he wanted some time to be alone, Charlotte said that she wanted to take a cold shower, Edmund said that he needed time to think about something and Wynette said that she would be happy to just be alone and play her phone.

The Burrow was not built to accommodate so many people. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were now sleeping in the sitting room, having shouted down Monsieur and Madame Delacour's protests and insisted they take their bedroom. Gabrielle was sleeping with Fleur in Percy's old room, and Bill would be sharing with Charlie, his best man, once Charlie arrived from Romania. Opportunities to make plans together became virtually nonexistent, and it was in desperation that Harry, Ron and Hermione took to volunteering to feed the chickens just to escape the overcrowded house.

"But she still won't leave us alone!" snarled Ron, and their second attempt at a meeting in the yard was foiled by the appearance of Mrs. Weasley carrying a large basket of laundry in her arms.

"Oh, good, you've fed the chickens," she called as she approached them. "We'd better shut them away again before the men arrive tomorrow... to put up the tent for the wedding," she explained, pausing to lean against the henhouse. She looked exhausted. "Millamant's Magic Marquees... they're very good. Bill's escorting them...you'd better stay inside while they're here, Harry. I must say it does complicate organizing a wedding, having all these security spells around the place."

Thinking that it may be quite a bad idea to keep trying to meet in the yard, he asked Hermione and Ron if they wanted a chat in his room. When they reached, they saw that the light was switched off, Wynette's phone emitting off a light glow. Raven was sitting crossed-legged in the darkest corner of the room, Wynette still playing her phone, Charlotte levitating a single snowflake and Edmund reading a history book. Other than the constant tapping of Wynette's fingers against the phone, the room was silent.

"Can we come in?" Harry asked, when Edmund tilted his head up.

**M-kay, everyone! That's all! This is a hint: Something really AWESOME is gonna happen in the next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone! This is a new chapter, and I've decided that I won't add any sort of oracle. I won't tell everything now and don't wanna spoil it for ya. I also did a mistake on (OC) Charlotte Lace. Her age is 17 and not 15. I've accidentally overlooked this.**

**Reply to Lukas Le Stelle: I'm not adding anything from the books. No oracle or whatsoever. Thanks for all your reviews, I don't consider them as spam. I won't ignore them but I'll have to find a place where that could be used.**

**Reply to DreansAndIllusions: OK, you'll get a Charlotte chapter today! And there'll be one OC of each age. Wow! :)**

**Thank you all for reviewing! I'll reply them ASAP.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

OC – Raven Umbra Shadowheart, 18, Son of Hades

Well, it looked like Raven's alone-time ended, and predicting Harry, it would be chatting about what they came here for. Wynette filled everyone in about everything that happened from Harry IMing her up till the meeting in the Hades cabin.

Harry cleared his throat, as expected. Everyone looked up. He switched on the light, to my annoyance.

"Does anyone want candy?" Wynette said, digging her hand into her bag and dumping a heap of them in the bed.

"Me," Raven said, and she tossed him one, over Charlotte's and Edmund's heads. Her aim was quite accurate, and it felt unusually cold. He unwrapped it, popped it into his mouth and threw the wrapper away. Unknown by Raven, the sweet was filled with popping candy, and his mouth felt as if it was going to burst when the candy zoomed around his mouth. He couldn't help but open his mouth, letting some popping candy fly out of it.

Wynette saw what Raven did and started laughing at him.

Harry seemed to sense Raven's annoyance and cleared his throat again to get everyone's attention. "I think I need to tell all of you why you even came here," He said.

Ron and Hermione sat on the couch, while Harry paced around the room while telling them. He said, "Let's get to the point, ok? So we realized that Snape was in league with Voldemort. Actually, we realized that long ago. He wasn't nice to anyone, except the Slytherins, who were also kinda not nice. You get it?"

"Being nice doesn't mean you're good," Raven said.

"But Snape is from Slytherin house, whose students are usually followers of the Dark Lord," Harry said.

"Just continue," Edmund said.

"So after several instances where we kept spotting Snape in the forbidden forest and dark non-human figures around, we realized those silhouettes belonged to Greek monsters, and then we realized that Greek monsters cannot be killed by normal spells, except celestial bronze, right?"

"Right, and I'm getting sleepy. Can we do all of that tomorrow?" Wynette said, and leaned backwards onto the bed. Harry, Ron and Hermione left, assuming that the other three demigods didn't want one of their friends left out.

Hermione

Hermione couldn't believe that Harry actually chatted to these kind of people such as Wynette, Charlotte, Raven and Edmund. Wynette seemed as if she could never be bothered to do anything. Charlotte seemed to keep too much to herself. Raven was just dark and gloomy. Edmund, smart, but she didn't know anything about him. Probably from a messed-up family.

Hermione followed Harry and Ron upstairs to the attic. They settled down, most of the time waking Ron to stop snoring so loudly, but after about 15 minutes, Harry and Hermione had drifted off to sleep.

OC – Charlotte Lace, 17, daughter of Khione

Charlotte fell asleep immediately on the bed. And she fell into an unmistakable demigod dream.

_Everything was dark at first. Then, she saw buildings on fire. Jets of fire were shooting out from wands. Then, with realization and fear, noticed that the building on fire was actually Hogwarts. She was holding her sword, deflecting off jets of multicoloured lights with her other three friends who followed her on this quest._

_The scene changed, and this time, it showed Harry, Ron, Hermione, Wynette, Edmund, Raven and herself running towards a darkened house._

"_You shall realize and try to find," a raspy female voice said, like the oracle back at Camp Half Blood._

_Then, a woman with really curly, bushy black hair blocked them and shrieked shrilly, "You shall fail and left all behind!"_

_The scene changed after that, and showed back what happened at first. The oracle voice said again, "Half-bloods, pure-bloods and mudbloods fight."_

"_But only one shall have the might," a man who was bald, noseless and who was wearing black robes whispered dangerously, before shouting, "AVADA KADAVRA!"_

_A bright, powerful jet shot from his wand, straight towards a blur figure. Charlotte squinted, desperate to catch one last look of the victim, but everything was fading. The different voices were in her head, repeating over and over again, the unmistakable sound of a probably fatal prophecy._

"_You shall realize and try to find  
You shall fail and left all behind  
Half-bloods, pure-bloods and mudbloods fight  
But only one shall have the might."_

_It echoed around her head, getting louder and louder, until she couldn't take it anymore…_

Charlotte awoke in cold sweat dripping down her forehead, breathing heavily. That…was a bad prophecy. She turned her head towards a sudden bounce from the bed, and saw that Wynette had also been dreaming the prophecy.

Wiping the sweat away from her forehead with the back of her hand, she dashed out of the room, up the stairs and into Ron's dingy attic room. She saw Ron prodding Harry awake, and Harry was muttering, "Gregorovitch, Gregorovitch."

Charlotte concentrated and brought the room temperature to five degrees. Harry shuddered and awoke, and then she stopped concentrating and everything went back as if she didn't do anything.

"How did you do that?" Ron said.

"What do you mean my 'how'?" Charlotte said.

"Magic? Anyway, Harry, who's Gregorovitch?" Ron asked.

"Who's Gregorovitch?" Harry said.

"I dunno, do I? You were the one saying it."

After thinking for a while, Harry said, "I think Voldemort's looking for him."

"Poor bloke," Ron said, and stood up.

"No," said Harry. "I'm definitely not thinking of Gorgovitch."

"I try not to either," said Ron. "Well, happy birthday anyway."

"Wow ¨C that's right, I forgot! I'm seventeen!"

Harry seized the wand lying beside his camp bed, pointed it at the cluttered desk where he had left his glasses, and said, "Accio glasses!" Although they were only around a foot away, there was something immensely satisfying about seeing them zoom toward him, at least until they poked him in the eye.

"Slick," snorted Ron.

Reveling in the removal of his Trace, Harry sent Ron's possessions flying around the room, causing Pigwidgeon to wake up and flutter excitedly around his cage. Harry also tried tying the laces of his trainers by magic (the resultant knot took several minutes to untie by hand) and, purely for the pleasure of it, turned the orange robes on Ron's Chudley Cannons posters bright blue.

"I'd do your fly by hand, though," Ron advised Harry, sniggering when Harry immediately checked it. "Here's your present. Unwrap it up here, it's not for my mother's eyes."

"A book?" said Harry as he took the rectangular parcel. "Bit of a departure from tradition, isn't it?"

"This isn't your average book," said Ron. "It's pure gold: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Explains everything you need to know about girls. If only I'd had this last year I'd have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would've known how to get going with...well, Fred and George gave me a copy, and I've learned a lot. You'd be surprised, it's not all about wandwork, either."

When they arrived in the kitchen they found a pile of presents waiting on the table. Bill and Monsieur Delacour were finishing their breakfasts, while Mrs. Weasley stood chatting to them over the frying pan.

"Arthur told me to wish you a happy seventeenth, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, beaming at him. "He had to leave early for work, but he'll be back for dinner. That's our present on top."

Charlotte ran as fast as she could back to the room where she saw Wynette looking over the staircase railing.

"Wyn! It's Harry's seventeenth birthday! And I just found that out a moment ago," Charlotte said.

"What?" Wyn said, her eyes widen in shock. "So…"

"We don't have anything to give," Charlotte said, shaking her head.

The hurried discussion right outside the room attracted Raven's and Edmund's attention. "Wait…it's Harry's birthday?"

"Yeah, and we don't have anything to give," Charlotte said seriously.

Their discussion was further cut off by Harry's yell, "Everyone! Can you get down here?"

"I guess we should go," Wynette said softly as she began slowly walking down the staircase. She was in no hurry to spoil Harry's birthday.

Wynette told Harry about not knowing that it was his birthday and being sorry and blah, blah, blah, but there was no time to discuss the matter; a second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.

The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light. Harry saw that he looked much older than the last time that had met, scraggy and grim.

"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate-crashing a party."

His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake.

"Many happy returns."

"Thanks," said Harry.

"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."

"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"

"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?" he demanded of Mr. Weasley.

"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"

"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur."

Harry saw Mr. Weasley exchange a worried look with Mrs. Weasley as he, Ron, and Hermione stood up. As they led the way back to the house in silence, Harry knew that the other two were thinking the same as he was; Scrimgeour must, somehow, had learned that the three of them were planning to drop out of Hogwarts.

Scrimgeour did not speak as they all passed through the messed kitchen and into the Burrow's sitting room. Although the garden had been full of soft golden evening light, it was already dark in here; Harry flicked his wand at the oil lamps as he entered and they illuminated the shabby but cozy room. Scrimgeour sat himself in the sagging armchair that Mr. Weasley normally occupied, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to squeeze side by side onto the sofa. Once they had done so, Scrimgeour spoke.

**Yay! Another chapter done! This was fast due to the pressure from all my reviewers! And another thanks to Lukas Le Stelle for giving me so many wonderful ideas :) I'll try to add them (I already said this).**

**Please review, OK? And more reviews! And even more reviews! I'm so happy! Awesome cookies for all of ya! (::)(::)(::)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone! This is the 4****th**** chapter, as all of you should have already known. And always, last minute replies I can't put on PM:**

**Reply to Lukas Le Stelle: Yeah! Keep on firing curses and hexes…**

**Reply to DreamsAndIllusions: I think everyone who reads (which is most likely the people who submitted OCs) should know this so…you can start submitting romantic interests already.**

**Yesh! So this's the new chapter, blah blah blah, there will be less of the part where the demigods come in so let's start it with a…Harry chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Harry

"'The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore'... Yes, here we are... 'To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it.'" Scrimgeur said.

Scrimgeour took from the bag an object that Harry had seen before: It looked something like a silver cigarette lighter, but it had, he knew, the power to suck all light from a place, and restore it, with a simple click. Scrimgeour leaned forward and passed the Deluminator to Ron, who took it and turned it over in the fingers looking stunned.

"That is a valuable object," said Scrimgeour, watching Ron. "It may even be unique. Certainly it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you and item so rare?"

Ron shook his head, looking bewildered.

"'To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive.'"

Scrimgeour now pulled out of the bag a small book that looked as ancient as the copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art upstairs. Its binding was stained and peeling in places. Hermione took it from Scrimgeour without a word. She held the book in her lap and gazed at it. Harry saw that the title was in runes; he had never learned to read them. As he looked, a tear splashed onto the embossed symbols.

"'To Harry James Potter,'" he read, and Harry's insides contracted with a sudden excitement, "'I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill.'"

As Scrimgeour pulled out the tiny, walnut-sized golden ball, its silver wings fluttered rather feebly, and Harry could not help feeling a definite sense of anticlimax.

"That's all, then, is it?" asked Hermione, making to raise herself off the sofa.

"Not quite," said Scrimgeour, who looked bad tempered now. "Dumbledore left you a second bequest, Potter."

"What is it?" asked Harry, excitement rekindling.

Scrimgeour did not bother to read from the will this time.

"The sword of Godric Gryffindor," he said. Hermione and Ron both stiffened. Harry looked around for a sign of the ruby-encrusted hilt, but Scrimgeour did not pull the sword from the leather pouch, which in any case looked much too small to contain it.

"So where is it?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Unfortunately," said Scrimgeour, "that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artifact, and as such, belongs…"

"It belongs to Harry!" said Hermione hotly. "It chose him, he was the one who found it, it came to him out of the Sorting Hat-"

"According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor," said Scrimgeour.

Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third of fourth time, Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... Shall I serve dinner now?" They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up.

Mrs. Weasley asked the demigods and the golden trio to help her restore the garden to its original state. Mrs. Weasley said that since they were Harry's friends they should help him, and then Harry told them that no one in the house except them knew they were demigods.

Up in the attic room, Ron examined his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's moleskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were the Marauder's Map, the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror, and R.A.B.'s locket. He pulled the string tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly. At last, Hermione and the four demigods tapped on the door and tiptoed inside.

"Muffiato," she whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs.

"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" said Ron.

"Times change," said Hermione. "Now, show us that Deluminator."

Ron obliged at once. Holding I up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.

"The thing is," whispered Hermione through the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."

There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.

"Still, it's cool," said Ron, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"

"I know but, surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!"

"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.

"Definitely," said Hermione. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that will doesn't explain..."

"... why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.

"Well, exactly," said Hermione, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have left us know why... unless he thought it was obvious?"

"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old Snitch - what the hell was that about?"

"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" said Harry. "Don't you remember?"

Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.

"That was the one you nearly swallowed!"

"Exactly," said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.

**Slightly shorter chapter today! I'm sure the next one will be longer.**


	5. Chapter 5

**New chapter once again! I also realized that the number of free breaks I have is decreasing, so I want to ask everyone if they want to add back the free breaks.**

**If you still do not know what a free break is, carry on reading. If you already know, skip to the story. A free break is a break where there is NO cliffhanger. Gives you time to get a drink, go to the toilet without needing to remember exactly where you stopped and also does not give you such a excited feeling. Or else you might explode.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Harry

It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him: He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out.

"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" He nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise and excitement. Hermione was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanted handwriting that Harry recognized as Dumbledore's

I open at the close.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wynette said.

Everybody looked at her, as if she had just appeared out of nowhere, but all of them looked blank.

Edmund was doing actions of opening and closing, Hermione repeated the words with different inflections, Raven thinking silently, but no one was able to wring any more meaning from that phrase.

"What about the sword?" Ron said. "Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"

"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry said quietly. "I was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"

Harry's brain was suddenly slow and unresponsive, like a computer screen where you clicked something and the loading circle near the cursor appeared, but nothing was changing. Was he supposed to understand something that he apparently didn't?

Hermione broke the silence. "And as for this book…the tales of Beedle the Bard…I've never even heard of them!"

"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not," said Hermione in surprise. "Do you know them then?"

"Well, of course I do!"

Harry looked up, diverted. The circumstance of Ron having read a book that Hermione had not was unprecedented. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise.

"Oh come on! All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' ... 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'... 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'..."

"Excuse me?" said Hermione giggling. "What was the last one?"

"Come off it!" said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty-"

"Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and 'Cinderella'-"

"Can we continue?" Wynette said suddenly. "Or else I'm going to go to sleep if this continues and we still-"

Something cracked downstairs.

"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," said Ron nervously.

"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow."

"No," agreed Ron. "A brutal triple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of damper on the wedding. I'll get the light."

And he clicked the Deluminator once more as Hermione left the room.

~~TIME SKIP~~

Three o'clock on the following afternoon found Harry, Ron, Fred and George standing outside the great white marquee in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests. Harry had taken a large dose of Polyjuice Potion and was now the double of a redheaded Muggle boy from the local village, Ottery St. Catchpole, from whom Fred had stolen hairs using a Summoning Charm. The plan was to introduce Harry as "Cousin Barny" and trust to the great number of Weasley relatives to camouflage him.

All four of them were clutching seating plans, so that they could help show people to the right seats. A host of white-robed waiters had arrived an hour earlier, along with a golden jacketed band, and all of these wizards were currently sitting a short distance away under a tree. Harry could see a blue haze of pipe smoke issuing from the spot. Behind Harry, the entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet. The supporting poles were entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife. Outside, butterflies and bees were hovering lazily over the grass and hedgerow. Harry was rather uncomfortable. The Muggle boy whose appearance he was affecting was slightly fatter than him and his dress robes felt hot and tight in the full glare of a summer's day.

"When I get married," said Fred, tugging at the collar of his own robes, "I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body Bird Curse on Mum until it's all over."

"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," said George. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him. Oh blimey, brace yourselves, here they come, look."

Brightly colored figures were appearing, one by one out of nowhere at the distant boundary of the yard. Within minutes a procession had formed, which began to snake its way up through the garden toward the marquee. Exotic flowers and bewitched birds fluttered on the witches' hats, while precious gems glittered from many of the wizards' cravats; a hum of excited chatter grew louder and louder, drowning the sound of the bees as the crowd approached the tent.

Ron gave Harry a meaningful look as he passed and did not reappear for some time. When next they met at the entrance, Harry had shown a dozen more people to their places. The Marquee was nearly full now and for the first time there was no queue outside.

"Nightmare, Muriel is," said Ron, mopping his forehead on his sleeve. "She used to come for Christmas every year, then, thank God, she took offense because Fred and George set off a Dungbomb under her chair at diner. Dad always says she'll have written them out of her will ¨C like they care, they're going to end up richer than anyone in the family, rate they're going... Wow," he added, blinking rather rapidly as Hermione came hurrying toward them. "You look great!"

"Always the tone of surprise," said Hermione, though she smiled. She was wearing a floaty, lilac-colored dress with matching high heels; her hair was sleek and shiny. "Your Great-Aunt Muriel doesn't agree, I just met her upstairs while she was giving Fleur the tiara. She said, 'Oh dear, is this the Muggle-born?' and then, 'Bad posture and skinny ankles.'"

"Don't take it personally, she's rude to everyone," said Ron.

"Talking about Muriel?" inquired George, reemerging from the marquee with Fred. "Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."

"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" asked Hermione.

"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end," conceded George.

~~TIME SKIP~~

"I simply can't dance anymore," Hermione panted, slipping of one of her shoes and rubbing the sole of her foot. "Ron's gone looking to find more butterbeers. It's a bit odd. I've just seen Viktor storming away from Luna's father, it looked like they'd been arguing." She dropped her voice, staring at him. "Harry, are you okay?"

Harry did not know where to begin, but it did not matter, at that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance.

Harry noticed first that the demigods had the fastest reflex. Wynette had a knife in each hand, but her usual weapon was a bow, Charlotte and Raven had their swords out, and Edmund also had his knife. All of them were in a fighting stance, but then the lynx spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

**Yay! Done! And last of all, review! And thanks to just-add-a-dash-of-savvy for finally reading my new chapters! You are not the worst. Someone else is worse than you.**


	6. Chapter 6

**The previous chapter had a really, really large cliffhanger (yet), I expect all of you to be all waiting for it, so here it is!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Harry

Everything seemed fuzzy, slow. Harry and Hermione jumped to their feet and drew their wands. Many people were only just realizing that something strange had happened; heads were still turning toward the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.

Harry, Hermione and the demigods threw themselves into the panicking crowd. Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken.

"Ron!" Hermione cried. "Ron, where are you?"

As they pushed their way across the dance floor, Harry saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd; then he saw Lupin and Tonks, their wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides.

And then Ron was there. He caught hold of Hermione's free arm, and Harry gripped everyone firmly so that they won't be left behind. Harry felt her turn on the spot;sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon him; all he could feel was Hermione's hand as he was squeezed through space and time, away from the Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself...

"Ooh, what was that at the wedding?" Wynette said.

"We Disapparated. There were death eaters there," Hermione said.

Wynette suddenly burst into fits of laughter, attracting a lot of attention as pub-goers ogled at them as the golden trio were still wearing dress robes. "Who wants to eat death?" She said.

"Where are we?" Ron said.

"Tottenham Court Road," Panted Hermione. "Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change."

Harry did as she asked. They half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revelers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes.

"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and-"

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," said Hermione, "Just try and act naturally until…this will do."

She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway

"When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes..." said Harry, frowning at Hermione, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging.

"Yes, they're here," said Hermione, and to Harry and Ron's utter astonishment, she pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, some maroon socks, and finally the silvery Invisibility Cloak.

"How the ruddy hell?"

"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione. "Tricky, but I think I've done it okay; anyway, I managed to fit everything we need in here." She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it. "Oh, damn, that'll be the books," she said, peering into it, "and I had them all stacked by subject…oh well…Harry, you'd better take the Invisibility Cloak. Ron, hurry up and change…"

"I need to tell everybody something important." Harry said. Everyone turned to him.

"You cannot use your godly powers in public…that might also be one of the causes of everybody running around during the wedding. We should get wands for you," Harry continued, "And you need to use the powers less."

"Why get a wand when we don't know how to use one? We won't be able to cast spells, so what do we do with them? Poke their eyes out?" Edmund said.

"As disguise," Wynette said. This was one of the few times when Wynette actually said something sensible and intelligent before the others had figured it out. "If we stick to our weapons, wizards will see. Mortals can't but they might also."

Harry nodded, then remembered that they could not see him, and said, "Yeah." But he thought of Ginny, and fear bubbled like acid in his stomach.

"Come on, I think we ought to keep moving," said Hermione.

They moved back up the side street and onto the main road again, where a group of men on the opposite side was singing and weaving across the pavement.

"Just as a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I've no idea, it just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer out in the Muggle world, it's not where they'll expect us to be."

"True," said Ron, looking around, "but don't you feel a bit ¨C exposed?"

"Where else is there?" asked Hermione, cringing as the men on the other side of the road started wolf-whistling at her. "We can hardly book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out if Snape can get in there... I suppose we could try my parents' home, though I think there's a chance they might check there... Oh, I wish they'd shut up!"

"All right, darling?" the drunkest of the men on the other pavement was yelling. "Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger and come and have a pint!"

"Let's sit down somewhere," Hermione said hastily as Ron opened his mouth to shout back across the road. "Look, this will do, in here!"

It was a small and shabby all-night cafe. A light layer of grease lay on all the Formica-topped tables, but it was at least empty. Harry slipped into a booth first and Ron sat next to him opposite Hermione, who had her back to the entrance and did not like it: She glanced over her shoulder so frequently she appeared to have a twitch. Harry did not like being stationary; walking had given the illusion that they had a goal. Beneath the Cloak he could feel the last vestiges of Polyjuice leaving him, his hands returning to their usual length and shape. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on again.

After a minute or two, Ron said, "You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross-"

"Ron, we can't!" said Hermione at once.

"Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!"

"We know what's going on! Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?"

"Okay, okay, it was just an idea!"

They relapsed into a prickly silence. The gum-chewing waitress shuffled over and Hermione ordered two cappuccinos: As Harry was invisible, it would have looked odd to order him one. A pair of burly workmen entered the cafe and squeezed into the next booth. Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper.

"I say we find a quiet place to Disapparate and head for the countryside. Once we're there, we could send a message to the Order."

"Can you do that talking Patronus thing, then?" asked Ron.

"I've been practicing and I think so," said Hermione.

"Well, as long as it doesn't get them into trouble, though they might've been arrested already. God, that's revolting," Ron added after one sip of the foamy, grayish coffee. The waitress had heard; she shot Ron a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers' orders. The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge, now that Harry came to look at him, waved her away. She stared, affronted.

"Let's get going, then, I don't want to drink this muck," said Ron. "Hermione, have you got Muggle money to pay for this?"

"Yes, I took out all my Building Society savings before I came to the Burrow. I'll bet all the change is at the bottom," sighed Hermione, reaching for her beaded bag.

The two workmen made identical movements, and Harry mirrored them without conscious thought.

"That's a death eater!" Harry whispered to the demigods, before taking out his own wand.

Everyone took out weapons, and Harry yelled, "Stupefy!"

"Expulso!" bellowed the Death Eater, and the table behind which Harry was standing blew up: The force of the explosion slammed him into the wall and he felt his wand leave his hand as the Cloak slipped off him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" screamed Hermione from out of sight, and the Death Eater fell forward like a statue to land with a crunching thud on the mess of broken china, table, and coffee. Hermione crawled out from underneath the bench, shaking bits of glass ashtray out of her hair and trembling all over.

"D-diffindo," she said, pointing her wand at Ron, who roared in pain as she slashed open the knee of his jeans, leaving a deep cut. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron, my hand's shaking! Diffindo!"

The severed ropes fell away. Ron got to his feet, shaking his arms to regain feeling in them. Harry picked up his wand and climbed over all the debris to where the large blond Death Eater was sprawled across the bench.

"I should've recognized him, he was there the night Dumbledore died," he said. He turned over the darker Death Eater with his foot; the man's eyes moved rapidly between Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"That's Dolohov," said Ron. "I recognize him from the old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle."

"Never mind what they're called!" said Hermione a little hysterically. "How did they find us? What are we going to do?"

Somehow her panic seemed to clear Harry's head.

"Lock the door," he told her, "and Ron, turn out the lights."

He looked down at the paralyzed Dolohov, thinking fast as the lock clicked and Ron used the Deluminator to plunge the cafe into darkness. Harry could hear the men who had jeered at Hermione earlier, yelling at another girl in the distance.

"What are we going to do with them?" Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, "Kill them? They'd kill us. They had a good go just now."

**Okay! End of chapter again! I've been writing a lot, so just review and review and I won't get angry!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi everyone! I was just wondering whether you want me to stick to the book, or continue on my own, because if I stick to the book there may be a lot of chapters. So, when you review, include a part how you want me to continue.**

Hermione shuddered and took a step backward. Harry shook his head.

"We just need to wipe their memories," said Harry. "It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it'd be obvious we were here."

"You're the boss," said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. "But I've never down a Memory Charm."

"Nor have I," said Hermione, "but I know the theory."

She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov's forehead and said, "Obliviate."

At once, Dolohov's eyes became unfocused and dreamy.

"Brilliant!" said Harry, clapping her on the back. "Take care of the other one and the waitress while Ron and I clear up."

"Clear up?" said Ron, looking around at the partly destroyed cafe. "Why?"

"Don't you think they might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed?"

"Oh right, yeah..."

Ron struggled for a moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.

"It's no wonder I can't get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they're tight."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," hissed Hermione, and as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows, Harry heard her mutter a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead.

Once the cafe was restored to its previous condition, they heaved the Death Eaters back into their booth and propped them up facing each other. "But how did they find us?" Hermione asked, looking from one inert man to the other. "How did they know where we were?"

"You don't think you've still got your Trace on you, do you, Harry?"

"He can't have," said Ron. "The Trace breaks at seventeen, that's Wizarding law, you can't put it on an adult."

"As far as you know," said Hermione. "What if the Death Eaters have found a way to put it on a seventeen-year-old?"

"But Harry hasn't been near a Death Eater in the last twenty-four hours. Who's supposed to have put a Trace back on him?"

Hermione did not reply. Harry felt contaminated, tainted: Was that really how the Death Eaters had found them?

"If I can't use magic, and you can't use magic near me, without us giving away our position-" he began.

"We're not splitting up!" said Hermione firmly.

"We need a safe place to hide," said Ron. "Give us time to think things through."

"Grimmauld Place," said Harry.

The other two gaped.

"Don't be silly, Harry, Snape can get in there!"

"Ron's dad said they've put up jinxes against him ¨C and even if they haven't worked," he pressed on as Hermione began to argue "so what? I swear, I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape!"

"But-"

"Hermione, where else is there? It's the best chance we've got. Snape's only one Death Eater. If I've still got the Trace on me, we'll have whole crowds of them on us wherever else we go."

She could not argue, though she looked as if she would have liked to. While she unlocked the caf¨¦ door, Ron clicked the Deluminator to release the caf¨¦'s light. Then, on Harry's count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily, Harry, Ron and Hermione had turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more.

Seconds later Harry's lungs expanded gratefully and he opened his eyes: They were now standing in the middle of a familiar small and shabby square. Tall, dilapidated houses looked down on them from every side. Number twelve was visible to them, for they had been told of its existence by Dumbledore, its Secret-Keeper, and they rushed toward it, checking every few yards that they were not being followed or observed. They raced up the stone steps, and Harry tapped the front door once with his wand. They heard a series of metallic clicks and the clatter of a chain, then the door swung open with a creak and they hurried over the threshold.

As Harry closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway. It looked just as Harry remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother. The only thing that was out of place was the troll's leg umbrella stand, which was lying on its side as if Tonks had just knocked it over again.

"I think somebody's been in here," Hermione whispered, pointing toward it.

"That could've happened as the Order left," Ron murmured back.

"So where are these jinxes they put up against Snape?" Harry asked.

"Maybe they're only activated if he shows up?" suggested Ron.

Yet they remained close together on the doormat, backs against the door, scared to move farther into the house.

"Well, we can't stay here forever," said Harry, and he took a step forward.

"Severus Snape?"

Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness, making all three of them jump back in fright. "We're not Snape!" croaked Harry, before something whooshed over him like cold air and his tongue curled backward on itself, making it impossible to speak. Before he had time to feel inside his mouth, however, his tongue had unraveled again.

The other two seemed to have experienced the same unpleasant sensation. Ron was making retching noises; Hermione stammered, "That m-must have b-been the T-Tongue-Tying Curse Mad-Eye set up for Snape!"

Gingerly Harry took another step forward. Something shifted in the shadows at the end of the hall, and before any of them could say another word, a figure had risen up out of the carpet, tall, dust-colored, and terrible; Hermione screamed and so did Mrs. Black, her curtains flying open; the gray figure was gliding toward them, faster and faster, its waist-length hair and beard streaming behind it, its face sunken, fleshless, with empty eye sockets: Horribly familiar, dreadfully altered, it raised a wasted arm, pointing at Harry.

"Nooooooo!" Wynette shouted and threw a knife. Just as the knife left her hand, arrows sprouted from the opposite wall and her knife wedged itself into the wall.

"No!" Harry shouted, and though he had raised his wand no spell occurred to him. "No! It wasn't us! We didn't kill you-"

On the word 'kill', the figure exploded in a great cloud of dust: Coughing, his eyes watering, Harry looked around to see Hermione crouched on the floor by the door with her arms over her head, and Ron, who was shaking from head to foot, patting her clumsily on the shoulder and saying, "It's all r-right... It's g-gone..."

Dust swirled around Harry like mist, catching the blue gaslight, as Mrs. Black continued to scream.

"Mudbloods, filth, stains of dishonor, taint of shame on the house of my fathers ¨C "

"SHUT UP!" Harry bellowed, directing his wand at her, and with a bang and a burst of red sparks, the curtains swung shut again, silencing her.

"That... that was..." Hermione whimpered, as Ron helped her to her feet.

"Yeah," said Harry, "but it wasn't really him, was it? Just something to scare Snape."

Had it worked, Harry wondered, or had Snape already blasted the horror-figure aside as casually as he had killed the real Dumbledore? Nerves still tingling, he led the other two up the hall, half-expecting some new terror to reveal itself, but nothing moved except for a mouse skittering along the skirting board.

"Before we go any farther, I think we'd better check," whispered Hermione, and she raised her wand and said, "Homenum revelio."

Nothing happened.

"Well, you've just had a big shock," said Ron kindly. "What was that supposed to do?"

"It did what I meant it to do!" said Hermione rather crossly. "That was a spell to reveal human presence, and there's nobody here except us!"

"And old Dusty," said Ron, glancing at the patch of carpet from which the corpse-figure had risen.

"Let's go up," said Hermione with a frightened look at the same spot, and she led the way up the creaking stairs to the drawing room on the first floor.

Hermione waved her wand to ignite the old gas lamps, then, shivering slightly in the drafty room, she perched on the sofa, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Ron crossed to the window and moved the heavy velvet curtains aside an inch.

"Can't see anyone out there," he reported. "And you'd think, if Harry still had a Trace on him, they'd have followed us here. I know they can't get in the house, but…what's up, Harry?"

Harry had given a cry of pain: His scar had burned against as something flashed across his mind like a bright light on water. He saw a large shadow and felt a fury that was not his own pound through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock.

"What did you see?" Ron asked, advancing on Harry. "Did you see him at my place?"

"No, I just felt anger…he's really angry…"

"But that could be at the Burrow," said Ron loudly. "What else? Didn't you see anything? Was he cursing someone?"

"No, I just felt anger…I couldn't tell…"

Harry felt badgered, confused, and Hermione did not help as she said in a frightened voice, "Your scar, again? But what's going on?"

**Yay! Another chapter don! Remember to say something about me following the book or whether I should go my way!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Just a quick note to everyone: the break in between chapters will be longer as 4/4 people who reviewed in the previous chapters voted for me to continue the story my own way, so I'll need more time to type out the chapters nice and original ;) so expect the wait (and probably the suspense) to be longer. By a bit only. I didn't reply the reviews as they were around the same, so you know…and a reminder for everyone to start choosing romantic interests (bad luck for me) so I can plan SOME, keyword 'some', fluff to the story!**

**Oh yeah, and does anyone want a Ron chapter before I continue on with the demigods? Can't put them there for nothing. I'll also write more from the demigods' POV before continuing a while with Harry. Visit my profile also for a poll concerning this story.**

**I also think that you were wondering why the break was so long. And I'll explain why. I had this huge gigantic enormous writers' block, so I couldn't continue, as so it was on temporary hiatus. OK, done with the rambling, and we'll start the story!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the things.**

Hermione

"I thought that connection had closed!" Hermione said.

"Maybe it opens a bit when he has really, really bad thoughts, like those that make you feel like exploding," Edmund said, his grey eyes deep in thought.

"Close it, now," Raven said.

Hermione saw Harry turn his back and examine the tapestry of the Black family tree on the wall. Then a sliver Patronus soared through the window and solidified into a weasel that spoke with the voice of Ron's father.

"Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched."

After that, it dissolved into nothingness. Wynette raised an eyebrow and Charlotte had the '?' expression on her face. Other than that, no one changed.

Harry

The pain in his scar was reaching a peak, like it had in the Burrow. He faintly heard Hermione say, "Can we use the sleeping bags I brought and camp here tonight? Wait…shucks! There's only four of them!"

"Ahh, I don't need to use them, I'll leave it to you three to settle that," Wynette said.

Before anyone could say anything, Harry muttered, "Bathroom," and left the room.

Once Harry stepped onto the bathroom, he locked the door, grasped his head and fell to the floor, and in an explosion of agony and rage that wasn't his, he saw a room lit with firelight, and the blonde Death Eater writhing and screaming on the floor and a slighter figure standing over him, wand raised…

OC – Edmund Adrian Seine, 16, son of Athena

"What about…we all don't use the sleeping bag, since it is so hard to decide?" Edmund said.

"Good idea, just leave it just in case," Wynette said, sprawled on the sofa. She didn't even bother to look up.

"In case of what?" Hermione said.

"Attack," Ron said.

"How's that gonna help us?" Charlotte said.

"Ah, wait. Harry left his toothbrush. He must be looking for it," Hermione said.

She was beginning to go up the stairs when Raven said, "Wait…I think Harry's connection is open again!"

"Bloody hell, how did you know?" Ron said.

"I don't know but…you see, here when Harry's connection was first opened, there's this weird feeling…"

"Then shouldn't it be a good idea to go and-" Before Hermione had said 'idea', she was already getting up from the floor and turning to the direction of the bathroom.

~~TIME SKIP~~

Edmund suddenly heard Hermione say and rattle the doorknob, "Harry?"

"Alohomora," She said, but the door didn't unlock. "Alohomora! It's jinxed. It can't open to this spell. ALOHOMORA!"

OC – Wynette Jessephine, 15, daughter of Hermes

Wynette ran up next to Hermione and said, "This might not work but…"

Wynette put her hand on the doorknob. The door clicked sharply and unlocked. It swung inwards and they saw Harry lying on the floor, his nose inches away from one of the silver serpent tails that supported the bathtub.

"Oh," Wynette said, in a late-reaction way.

"He's passed out. Let's bring him back," Hermione said, as if no one already knew what to do.

~~TIME SKIP~~

Harry

The gaunt petrified face of Malfoy burned inside his eyes as Harry awoke, he heard some voices around him.

"He's awake!" He heard Hermione say.

Harry sat up. He felt a little groggy just after he fainted.

"Hey look, this dropped from the higher levels," Raven said. He smoothed it out, and it looked hole a letter handwritten and crumpled. Harry recognized the handwriting as his mother, so he asked Raven to pass the letter over and read it.

Dear Padfoot,

Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favorite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself. I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course James thought it was so funny, says he's going to be a great Quidditch player but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.

We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell ¨C also Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend. I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the next about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard.

Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore. I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually because it seems incredible that Dumbledore…

Harry's extremities seemed to have gone numb. He stood still, holding the miraculous paper in his nerveless fingers while he reread the letter.

"Harry!" Wynette said. "Don't faint again."

Harry suddenly bolted up the stairs until he stopped at a sign. He didn't know why he came here until he read the sign: Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black. Excitement trickled through him.

"R.A.B. I think we've found him." Harry said, and he was surprised his voice was so calm. "Let's search it, quickly!"

~~TIME SKIP~~

Harry

"He played seeker," Harry said.

"What?" Everyone said at the same time.

"He's sitting in the middle of the front row, that's where the Seeker…never mind," Harry said, when he realized that no one was listening. Hermione was still immersed in some clippings of Voldemort.

"You know, there's an easier way," Hermione said, raising her wand. "Accio locket!"

Nothing happened, and everyone looked disappointed.

"Is that it, then? It's not here?" Ron said.

"It could still be here, but under counter-enchantments," said Hermione.

Then Hermione stood bolt straight, a foot in the air, saying, "It could be somewhere else in the house, though…whether he'd manage to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn't he? Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them there to protect the locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at…at…"

Harry ran down the stairs taking two at a time and dashed to the kitchen, skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, and wrenched it open. Kreacher wasn't there.

"Kreacher!" Harry called, and he appeared in front of the cold and empty fireplace.

Harry then made the house elf answer all his questions truthfully. He told Kreacher to find Mundungus and bring him here, and gave him the fake Horcrux, the one in which Regulus had placed the note to Voldemort.

~~TIME SKIP~~

Three days later, Kreacher still did not come back. While everyone was in the drawing room, Harry slipped out of it and headed downstairs toward the kitchen.

He heard a tap on the front door, and then metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain.

Every nerve in his body seemed to tauten: He pulled out his wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited. The door opened: He saw a glimpse of the lamp-lit square outside, and a cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind it. The intruder took a step forward, and Moody's voice asked, "Severus Snape?" Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall and rushed him, raising its dead hand.

It was not I who killed you, Albus," said a quiet voice.

The jinx broke: The dust-figure exploded again, and it was impossible to make out the newcomer through the dense gray cloud it left behind.

Harry pointed the wand into the middle of it.

"Don't move!"

He had forgotten the portrait of Mrs. Black: At the sound of his yell, the curtains hiding her flew open and she began to scream, "Mudbloods and filth dishonoring my house-"

Everyone came crashing down the stairs.

"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"

"Oh, thank goodness," said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs. Black instead; with a bang, the curtains swished shut again and silence fell. Ron lowered his wand, and the demigods looked at Harry uncertainly.

"Show yourself!" he called back.

Lupin moved forward into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender.

"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag."

"Oh, all right," said Harry, lowering his wand, "but I had to check, didn't I?"

"Speaking as your ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, Hermione, you shouldn't be so quick to lower your defenses. Ah, and who are these people you have brought?" Lupin asked.

"They are…" Harry said.

"Friends. He invited us to the wedding," Edmund said.

"Oh, nice," Lupin said. "No sign of Severus, then?"

"No. What's going on? Is everyone okay?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Yes," Lupin said, "But we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside…"

"We know that," Harry said.

"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, Harry. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you, and I want to know what happened after you left the Burrow." Lupin said.

They descended into the kitchen, where Hermione pointed her wand at the grate. A fire sprang up instantly: It gave the illusion of coziness to the stark stone walls and glistened off the long wooden table. Lupin pulled a few butterbeers from beneath his traveling cloak and they sat down.

"I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me," said Lupin. "So, you came straight here after the wedding?"

"No," said Harry, "Only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a cafe on Tottenham Court Road."

**Ok, finally done! That was long. PLEASE review for all my hard work! And, good news, the writers' block is much less now.**


End file.
